Su-Hua Yu

Taiwan

Su-Hua Yu graduated from National Kaohsiung Normal University as a teacher. Born in a rural village with beautiful mountains and rivers she worked after school to help her mother collect wood, weed the garden, pick tea, and sew clothes. Times were challenging and similar for all families. In the evening she and her siblings enjoyed to sit by the riverbank and wait for their father who would bring fresh bread from the bakery on his way home.

In school she always followed her teachers’ and later her professors’ words and deeds. She came to understand that teaching is a responsibility and also a commitment, and she bravely accepted her government teaching position in Sanchong District with its poverty, crowded, low dark houses and alleys and poor civilization. It was the era of “Family Factory Workers,” and people left the countryside of southern Taiwan to live in crowded urban conditions in the north.

She met Master Chin Kungs and felt spiritual support, as she received the guiding words, “A teacher is the cumulative blessing for students.” Also, Professor Zheng Shi Yan taught her the “Infinite Life Sutra,” and she thereby followed Pure Land Buddhism.

With new energy arising, she created a Children’s Reading Class and called it the Heart Lotus Garden School (Geng Hsin Lin Yuan) along with Jui-Chu Chen, her former-university classmate. Su-Hua Yu, a teacher par excellence, brought the Sutras and Chinese traditional classics to children. After this, they established a Foundation and relocated to better premises where the landlord, the Ho family, created bright and spacious classrooms, a library, a lecture Dhamma hall, and a vegetarian restaurant.

The International Women’s Meditation Center Foundation received Thai government approval on September 20, 2010.